Chromebooks Get Adobe Photoshop as a Streaming Service

Chromebook critics once scoffed that the inexpensive and always-connected laptops can’t run Photoshop, one of Adobe’s most widely used and intensely coveted software programs by amateur and professional photographers the world over. Well, that’s no longer true, as a recent announcement by Adobe and Google has given holdouts a reason to reconsider the Chromebook.

According to Google, a brand new Creative Cloud service will bring a streaming version of Adobe Photoshop to Chromebook owners. This will effectively enable Chromebook owners to run Photoshop straight from the cloud, without downloading any software — similar to the way Microsoft Office 365 works.

The obvious upside to this scenario means users won’t need to download software updates, and will have continuous access to new capabilities.

The service, which be available initially to U.S.-based Adobe education customers, will require a paid membership to the aforementioned Creative Cloud. Plans start at $9.99 per month for basic Photoshop access and run as high as $49.99 per month. The upper echelon of plans also come with 20 gigabytes of cloud storage space and other perks, like a ProSite portfolio webspace.

Streaming access will be linked to Google Drive, allowing users to edit image files already uploaded to their personal cloud. Access to the service can be found at Adobe’s website.